It is quite common to read about “maker spaces” or “fab labs,” arising from hacker and DIY movements, being created in libraries on college campuses. Too often, such spaces are limited to a computer lab (for programming, gaming, and 3D modeling) equipped with 3D printers. An article in today’s Chronicle of Higher Education describes the type of maker space that I’ve thought about for a while, but they’re expensive to create, staff, and maintain. The article focuses on maker spaces at Case Western Reserve, Nebraska-Lincoln, Arizona State. Successful maker spaces are often centered in or strongly aligned with an engineering program.

In light of makerspaces, hackerspaces, women, and STEM, Hacker School has some guidelines to promote safe space for women and minorities in makerspaces and informal learning environments/conferences where diverse groups learn about STEM…you can read their user’s manual here:

I wanted to once again thank everyone who responded to my library makerspaces survey last November (see a summary of the results).

From those responses and my other research, I put together a page of Makerspace Resources that offer links to makerspace sites, listservs, project sites, product links, and collections of planning resources. I hope you will find this information useful if you are starting or continuing to build a makerspace.

You might also be interested in the book that resulted from the survey and my research: Makerspaces: A Practical Introduction for Librarians (just available this August). More information on the book is available on the Rowman and Littlefield Publishers site.